Trauma, collective trauma and refugee trajectories in the digital era

written by Selam Kidane

Development of the Trauma Recovery Understanding Self-Help Therapy (TRUST)

Forced migration has become an inescapable reality of our world in the 21st century. Why? The traumatic experiences of refugees are key to understanding why people keep on the move despite enormous risks. This book sheds light into the psychological impact entailed in refugee trajectories. With findings mainly from Eritrean refugee communities in multiple locations, the underpinning research reveals alarming levels of individual and collective trauma. The book outlines a new approach for treatment: the Trauma Recovery Understanding Self-Help – TRUST. The intervention was developed as a practical, self-help and low resource support to traumatised vulnerable refugees. TRUST utilises information technology to reduce levels of trauma, enabling refugees to build social and economic resilience as an alternative to pursuing risky migratory trajectories. The study concludes that providing psycho-social support is a more prudent alternative to managing forced migration. The use of hostile refugee polices that expose refugees to more trauma should be avoided. It puts refugees at risk of heinous organised crimes including human trafficking. TRUST resulted in significant positive outcomes for refugee wellbeing even in deprived refugee camps.

Selam Kidane

Selam Kidane is a systemic psychotherapist trained at the Institute of Family Therapy in London, UK. She is a researcher in various programmes related to refugees resilience and mental health with the Globalisation, Accessibility, Innovation and Care (GAIC)-programme at the Faculty of Humanities and Digital Sciences at the Tilburg University. She has worked with various refugee communities and particularly with separated refugee children in the UK and has authored practice guides and training manuals in relation to that work. Currently she works as a systemic therapist for an integrated clinical service in London.